Foldable rocking chair



Oct. 15, 1935. L. LEHNER FOLDABLE ROCKING CHAIR Filed April 11, 1954 6% My A A I 1 w a 5 w w xmh 7 Q INVENTOR.

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Louis faxge .9 A TTORNEYS.

Patented Get. 15, 1935 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

4 Claims.

This invention relates to chairs and particularly to a rocking chair of the deck or beach type which is foldable and adjustable to several positions and collapsible to a small, compact mass for storage and carrying purposes.

No success has heretofore been attained when attempting to construct a foldable chair of the deck or beach type which is provided with rockers. Whenever it was attempted to provide rockers on chairs of this type, the resulting structure became awkward and cumbersome and was extremely uncomfortable and folded into a, bulky mass.

In practicing the present invention, a back is provided, pivoted to the rear edge of a seat, the pivots resting on rearwardly extending legs which are pivoted to the arm rest and a link which forms a parallelogram when the link is pivoted to the front edge of the seat. The rocker elements are secured to the bottom edges of the rear and front legs, the latter being also pivoted to the front edge of the seat. Several notches are provided on the rearwardly extending legs to which the back is adjustably engaged to be tilted relative to the seat into straight or reclining position as the occupant may desire.

In view of the parallelogram construction provided by the seat, the arms, the back and the front links, the back may be variously sloped by adjusting the pivot, between the seat and the back, in the notches on the rearwardly extending legs and any position so selected retains the arms of the chair in parallel relation to the seat which is retained in substantially horizontal position.

The chair itself with the exception of the rocker element and the front leg and links follows the construction as taught in the Alfred H. Haberstump application Serial No. 665,896, filed April 13, 1933, and assigned to the parent company of the present assignee company.

Accordingly, the main objects of the invention are: to provide a chair of the rocker type which is simple in construction and which is readily foldable; to provide a chair of the rocker type which is adjustable to have the back tilt in any desired manner; to provide a seat for the chair which is hinged to the back, the dowel hinge connection being extended to form support on which the back and seat are adjustably secured to rearwardly extending legs; to provide arm rests for the rocking chair which are retained parallel at all times with the seat; to provide rockers for the chair which are pivotally attached tothe legs and which readily fold with the chair elements to form a compact mass; to retain all of the elements in adjustable but fixed relation'through the engagement of the pivot extensions of the seat and back in notches on the rear legs at a single point only on each side of the chair; and, in general, to provide a foldable chair of the 5 rocker type which is simple in construction, economical of manufacture and which, when in collapsed position, is of very small overall dimensions.

Other objects and features of novelty of the 10 invention will be either specifically pointed out or will become apparent when referring, for a better understanding of the invention, to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, wherein: it

Figure 1 is a side view, in elevation, of a chair embodying features of the invention,

Figure 2 is a front View of the chair illustrated in Fig. 1,

Fig. 3 is a side view of the chair, illustrated in 20 Fig. l, in folded position, and

Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectional view of the structure illustrated in Fig. 1, taken on the line 4-4 thereof.

A chair 5 is illustrated in Fig. 1 comprising a 25 back 6, a seat I, arm rests 8, arm rest supporting links 9, rearwardly extending legs I I, front legs I 2 and rockers [3. The elements 6, 7, )8 and II are similar in construction, arrangement and operation as that of the chair illustrated 30 and described in the above mentioned copending application. The front leg element of the application, however, is divided into two portions 9 and I2, as pointed out hereinabove, which are pivoted at l4 to the front end of the chair seat. I

The element 9 forms a. parallelogram with the arm 8, seat I and the lower portion of the back 6, for the purpose of retaining the arm rest parallel to the seat in all positions and to provide rigidity to the chair structure. A pivoted joint 15, provided between the back 6 and seat I, has the pivot thereof extended outwardly to engage notches it provided in the rear legs II for retaining the chair elements in fixed desired relation through the adjustment of the pin in any of the notches to position the seat and back angularly relative to each other. The rocker elements l3 are pivoted at I! to the ends of the rear legs H and front legs I2 and permit the compactfolding of the chair structure. When it is desired to fold the chair it is only necessary to raise the back to disconnect the pivots [5 from the notches l6 and by grasping the front edge of the seat 1 and raising the seat against the back, all of the elements move together into a compact mass as illustrated in Fig. 3. The links 9 and legs 12 scissor inwardly upon each other in extension of the end of the seat 1 as illustrated in Fig. 3 to permit the front end of the rocker l3 to move into engagement with the seat back 6.

It will be noted in Fig. 2 that the back is provided with a top cross bar l8 and a bottom cross element l9 which are interconnected with a plurality of slats 2|. This construction is followed in the seat 1 wherein the front seat rung 22 and rear seat brace 23 are interconnected by a plurality of the slats 2!.

I wish further to point out that the slats 2| in the seat 1 are unique in that they follow the contour of the cross members 22 and 23. The two slats opposite to the center slat is twisted, as

illustrated in Fig. 2. The rear ends of the slats are disposed on an upwardly presenting arc while their front ends are disposed on a downwardly presenting arc providing a twist to the slats which will cause the "seat, formed by allof the slats, to assume a combined shape of the top edges of the members 22 and 23. The seat thus formed is extremely comfortable. 7

The chair thus constructed is exceedingly simple, rigid, and provides the novel rocking features never employed successfully heretofore in this type of chair. The chair is readily handled by any person, it being only necessary to raise the back to disconnect the pivot I from the notches l6 and raise the front edge of the seat 1 to have all of the elements move into compact folded relation.

While only a single embodiment of the invention has been described and illustrated herein, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes, omissions, additions and substitutions ma be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the accompanying claims.

What is claimed is:

l. A foldable rocking chair having a back frame with outwardly extending supporting elements at the bottom thereof, a frontwardly disposed seat frame pivoted to the back frame, arm rests pivoted to the back frame, links pivoted to the front end of the arm rests and the front end of said seat, rear legs pivoted to the junction between the links and arm rest, front legs pivoted to the front edge of the seat, rocker elements pivoted to the ends of the front and rear legs, said rear legs being a provided with notches with which said supporting elements of the back frame engage for locking the chair in position and for adjusting the seat 5 and back in desired angular relation.

2. A chair having a back, a seat pivoted to said back, front legs pivoted to said seat, arm rests pivoted to said back, links pivoted to said seat and said arm rests forming parallelograms with 10 said arm rests, seat and back, rear legs pivoted to the pivot of said arin rests and links and releasably engaging said seat to retain the back and seat in fixed relation to each other, and rockers pivotally connected to the ends of the front and rear legs.

3. Acollapsible chair having a back frame, a seat frame pivoted near the lower end of said back frame, an arm rest and a front link at each side of said frames, the arm rest and front link at each side of the frames. being pivotally connected and pivoted respectively to the back frame and to the seat frame to form closed parallelograms with both sides of said frames, front legs pivoted adjacent to the front edge of said seat frame, rear legs pivotally connected to said arm rests adjacent to the front ends thereof and extending across said parallelograms, rockers pivotally connected to the ends of the front and rear legs, and means on at least one of said frames engaging said rear legs for retaining said parallelogramsagainst collapse.

4. A collapsible chair having a back frame, a seat frame pivoted near the lower end of said back frame, an arm rest and a front link at each side of said frames, the arm rest and front link at each side of the frames being pivotally connected and pivoted respectively to the back frame and to the seat frame to form closed parallelograms with both sides of said frames, front legs pivoted adjacent to the front edge of said seat frame, rear legs pivotally connected to said arm rests adjacent to the front ends thereof and extending across said parallelograms, rockers pivotally connected to the ends of the front and rear legs, and means on one of said frames in the vicinity of the pivot therebetween for engaging the rear legs and retaining the frames in rigid relation.

LOUIS LEHNER. 

